ACC ~ Philippians 2 v6b

EQUAL TO GOD. AUGUSTINE: God who is eternally wise has with him his eternal Wisdom [the Son]. He is not in any way unequal to the Father. He is not in any respect inferior. For the apostle too says “who, when he was in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God.” ON FAITH AND THE CREED 5.

EQUAL, NOT SIMILAR. MARIUS VICTORINUS: What does this mean—“being equal to God”? It means that he [the Son] is of the very same power and substance [as the Father]…. It is in this sense therefore that Christ was equal to God. Note that Paul did not say Christ was “similar to God,” for that would imply that Christ possessed some accidental likeness to the substance of God but not that he was substantially equal. … Thus Christ is the form of God. The form of God is the substance of God. The form and image of God is the Word. The Word is forever with God. The Word is of one substance with the Father, with whom from the beginning it remains forever the Word. AGAINST THE ARIANS 1.21-22.

HE ELECTED HUMILITY. THEODORET: Being God, and God by nature, and having equality with God, he thought this no great thing, as is the way of those who have received some honor beyond their merits, but, hiding his merit, he elected the utmost humility and took the shape of a human being. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.6-7.

WHETHER HUMILITY IS LACK OF POWER. CHRYSOSTOM: When someone who has the power to think great thoughts humbles himself, that one is humble. But when his humility comes from impotence, that is not what you would call humility. … It is a humility of a greater sort to refrain from “seizing” power, to be “obedient to death.” HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 7.2.5-8.

THE EQUALITY NOT ELICITED BY ROBBERY. MARIUS VICTORINUS: It would be a kind of robbery if two things were not equal by nature but were forced to be made equal or made equal through some accident. It therefore shows great confidence and bespeaks the very nature of divinity when Paul says of Christ that he did not think it robbery to be equal with God yet did not consider this equality something he had to fortify. AGAINST THE ARIANS 1.23.

TO GOD BELONGS DEITY BY NATURE. CHRYSOSTOM: Suppose someone commits a robbery and grabs something that does not belong to him. Wouldn’t he be inclined to hold on to it tightly, to grasp it and not lay it aside for fear of losing it? But suppose someone else possesses an estate by nature. He would not have any fear of losing it. He would not then be afraid to descend temporarily from his estate of dignity. He would know that he would suffer no loss, because it belongs to him naturally. … We are human beings. We are not divine by nature. We do not possess goodness by nature. But to God divinity belongs by nature. … His dominion was not acquired by seizure but was natural. It was not the gift of another but always stable and secure. HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 8.2.5-11.

HIS EQUALITY SHOWN NOT A ROBBERY BUT A RIGHT. AMBROSIASTER: Knowing that he is “in the form of God,” he committed no theft. … Rightly, then, he equaled himself with God. For the one who “thinks robbery” is the one who makes himself equal to another whose inferior he is. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS 2.6.

THE LOGIC OF THE EQUALITY. EUSEBIUS OF VERCELLI: You must choose one of two paths. Either there is a single inequality in the two [divine Father and divine Son] or there is a single equality in the glory of divinity itself. For no one is either greater or less than his own form. … This singular equality is seen not only in the concord of their willing together. It is rather in their very deity, since the form of equality is in no way divided into parts. Where there is one equality, there is no dis-cord. Where there is one equality, neither is prior to the other. Neither is posterior nor subordinate, since there is no distinction in the united equality, which is the fullness of divinity. ON THE TRINITY 3.4, 7.

THE EQUALITY INDIVISIBLE. AUGUSTINE: Wherein lies the Son’s equality? If you say in greatness, there is no equality of greatness in one who is less eternal. And so with other things. Is he perhaps equal in might but not equal in wisdom? Yet how can there be equality of might in one who is inferior in wisdom? Or is he equal in wisdom but not equal in might? But how can there be equality of virtue in one who is inferior in power? Instead Scripture declares more simply “he thought it not robbery to be equal.” Therefore every adversary of truth who is at all subject to apostolic authority must admit that the Son is in some one respect at least the equal of God. Let him choose whichever quality he might wish, but from that it will appear that he is equal in all that is attributed to divinity. ON THE TRINITY 6.5.

THE EQUALITY AS A PROOF OF HIS ETERNITY. CHRYSOSTOM: Now equality is not predicated of one subject, for that which is equal must be equal to something. Do you see how the existence of two subjects is affirmed, not two mere names without real significance? Do you hear how the Only Begotten existed before the ages? HOMILY ON PHILIPPIANS 7.2.5-8.

EQUALITY AS A PROOF OF HIS DIVINITY. PSEUDO-AUGUSTINE: If therefore he thought it no robbery to assert his equality with God, he demonstrated that he was the true Son of God. No one could be God’s equal without being truly God. QUESTIONS ON THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS 97.2.

EQUALITY DISTINGUISHED FROM HUMILITY. FULGENTIUS: While the whole Word came to us when “the Word was made flesh,” the whole remained with the Father in Spirit, equal to the Father, from whom he is eternally begotten yet made less by the gracious assumption of flesh so that he could be visible to us. And by this the Lord from the Lord remained Lord “in the form of God.” In order that he might come to slaves he received “the form of a slave” from his handmaid. N THE INCARNATION 21.

EQUALITY AS SHARED POWER. QUODVULTDEUS: He did not rob, because who he was, he was by nature. Thus the omnipotence of the Father was in the Son and the omnipotence of the Son in the Father. The Father is never without the Son nor the Son without the Father. ON THE CREED 1.3.14-15.

THE SON’S REMEMBRANCE OF HIS IDENTITY. NOVATIAN: He never either compared or opposed himself to God the Father. He remembered [throughout his earthly ministry] that he was from the Father. ON THE TRINITY 22.5.

THE ECONOMY OF THE INCARNATION. AUGUSTINE: These things are said partly on account of the economy by which the Son assumed humanity … partly because the Son owes to the Father his existence and also owes to the Father indeed his equality or parity with the Father. The Father, however, owes to no one his being, whatever he is. ON FAITH AND THE CREED 18.

Phil